iPhone beware, the Nokia N97 is coming

Nokia announced the N97, another mobile device aimed at challenging the iPhone. PC World has the details.

Nokia’s N97 Positioned Against iPhone

Nokia unveiled a new smartphone today called the Nokia N97. Nokia describes the phone as "the world's most advanced mobile computer" and is clearly positioned against Apple's iPhone. The list of features include:

- 3.5", 640x...

Review: Maximo iMetal Isolation Headset

Quite some time back I reviewed Maximo’s iMetal Earbud headset and thought they were a quality product. True to it’s name, I liked the metal earbud housings vs. plastic, the sound was good, and the performance for phone calls was more than acceptable. I’ve had a chance to try out another Maximo product, the iMetal Isolation Headset, available here in the TiPb Store for $69.95. So how do they measure up? How do they compare to the earbud headset that I also like from Maximo? Read on for the full review!

What’s In The Box

Like other Maximo headset products, you get more for your money than just a wired headset. Inside the package are the high-fidelity isolation headphones, three pairs of rubber ear tips (Small, Medium, and Large), a two-foot extension cable, and a small silver carrying pouch for your earphones.

 

 

The first thing you will notice when removing the headphones is that the earphones have a little weight to them. They are, indeed, metal — no cheap plastic to be found here — and they are heavier than a more cheaply-made plastic earphone housing. The materials used and build quality of the earphones inspire confidence and, in my case, I was expecting a superior sound to the headphones I’ve used in the past.

Design and Performance

The Maximo iMetal Isolation headset has a lightweight aluminum alloy body for the headphone housings. As previously mentioned, the earphones themselves are high-fidelity isolation earphones with 9mm neodymium drivers and a maximum SPL output of <120dB — quite a bit of sound even for the most robust listenenr. The headset cable is four feet in length and includes an additional 2 feet of extension cable, if needed. The connection is via a 3.5mm connector with stereo audio and mono high-definition condenser mic.

What all that means is that these headphones can crank out the sound and the whole idea behind “isolation” is the rubber ear tips are supposed to fit snugly in each ear, both eliminating outside noise while giving you, the listener, the best sound experience possible for your music, podcasts, or movies. In addition to a rich audio experience, these headphones are equipped with the aforementioned condenser mic for phone calls. Where each earphone cable meets, there is a soft-touch button for call answer/end and song pause/skip. The soft-touch button also supports the triple-tap for moving to the previous song on your list. Very handy indeed.

The carrying bag is a nice extra. When you are done listening and want to stow away your headphones, just coil them up and put them in the pouch, pull the drawstring to close, and worry less about the cable getting tangled up. With the extra 2-foot extension cord, you can wear your iPhone or iPod just about anywhere on your person and still have enough headphone cord length for comfort.

A few years ago, I switched to isolation-type headphones when I bought a pair of Sony headphones with the rubber ear tips. Once making that upgrade, I’ll never go back to standard earbud earphones. The quality of sound and the isolation of outside noise is simply too good to pass up. Given that my previous experience has been my Sony product, that is what I have to compare with these iMetal Isolation headphones.

Before you can enjoy these headphones fully, you need to spend a little time to find the ear tips that work best for you. With small, medium, and large tips to choose from, you want to find the ear tip that fits snuggly and comfortably. You might even find that one ear canal is bigger than the other and you could end up with a medium tip on one ear and a large tip on the other — that’s just fine. It’s nice to have the option.

Once you have the right fit, start to enjoy some very rich sound. The basses are punchy, the mid-range is solid and the highs are clear. For the price, I was quite impressed with the quality of sound I got to experience with the Maximo iMetal Isolation headset. The volume is impressive - I never got close to turning things all the way up because it gets plenty loud. Even when I turned it up, the headset remained clear and the audio did not distort in any noticeable way.

Taking phone calls is a cinch with this headset. When a phone call is coming through, the music will pause automatically and you can choose to accept the call. The call audio will come through your headphones in stereo, then just talk freely and the tiny condenser mic on the headset cord will pick up your voice just fine. I had no complaints from people I spoke to on the phone while wearing this headset.

My only concern with the headset is the fit of the rubber ear tips. In order to provide the most comfort possible and to ensure a snug fit so you can be reasonably active while wearing this headset, the rubber used in the tips is very soft and flexible. You need to insert them in your ear with care so as to not form TOO tight a fit - when fitting them too tightly, I found that the ear tips can create an uncomfortable “suction” in the ear. This can be remedied by removing the ear tips and replacing them more carefully in your ears, and also verifying that you are using the correct size for your ear. If they are too small, the suction effect is more likely.

Conclusion

The Maximo iMetal Isolation headset is a good quality headset that provides rich sound for the money. I like the aluminum alloy material for the headphones, the selection of three different sizes of ear tips, the soft-touch call button, and the extension cable and carrying pouch. This headset offers a lot of nice features and a great isolation-experience sound for a reasonable price. They are just a little more expensive than the Sony headphones I bought a few years ago, but in my opinion, offer a superior sound experience. I do feel it is necessary to deduct some points for the too-soft rubber used in the ear tips that can sometimes create an uncomfortable suction in the ear. Otherwise, this headset is a quality product that you should be satisfied with.

Rating:

Pros:

• Aluminum alloy metal housing for headphones
• Includes extras (two-foot extension cord, carrying pouch, and 3 sizes of ear tips
• Sound isolation experience
• Standard 3.5mm connector for iPhone

Cons:

• Ear tip rubber is very soft and can form a suction in the ear which can be uncomfortable

   

 

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Review: Maximo iMetal Isolation Headset

Apple finally offers in-ear headphones for sale

Filed under: Accessories, Audio, iPod Family, Peripherals, iPhone

We were recently wondering what happened to the in-ear headphones that Apple promised way back in September. Today, we're happy to see that the online Apple Store is finally offering them for sale with free shipping and delivery listed as 7-10 days.

These headphones promise to be of higher quality than the standard buds that ship with the iPhone. In addition to better drivers and sound isolation they include the new combo mic / remote that offers volume control on certain late model iPods (basically, the presently shipping models only). If you manage to grab a pair let us know what you think.

[via Engadget]

Apple finally offers in-ear headphones for sale originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple finally offers in-ear headphones for sale originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple reveals top paid and free iPhone apps

Apple published a list of the top iPhone apps in a variety of categories.

Review: Ocarina for iPhone

Your iPhone can not only play music, but, thanks to virtual instruments, make it as well. Smule’s Ocarina is one of the most interesting and affordable iPhone instruments out there.

Want a 32GB iPhone for Macworld?

MacRumors is passing on… well… rumors from MacBlogz of a 32GB iPhone! Says MacRumors:

The reason the largest iPhone (16GB) currently has 1/2 the memory of the largest iPod touch (32GB) is that the iPhone can only house a single NAND Flash chip while the iPod touch can accommodate two. The additional space in the iPhone is taken up by its communication hardware. In August, Toshiba announced that they would begin mass production of higher density 32GB chips in the 4th quarter of 2008.

Intel, they go on to say, may well bump the capacity even further — to a startling 64GB — by early next year. Sound crazy? Heh. With Macworld coming in just over a month, we ain’t seen nothing yet on the rumor front.

Still, 32GB is drool worthy, and something we here at TiPb are predicting for next year as part of a third generation iPhone HD, so you know we wants it.

How about you? Is 16GB enough, or is it always going to be a case of the more, the better?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Want a 32GB iPhone for Macworld?

Nokia Announces N97 “Yet Another iPhone Killer”?

Is this enough to up Nokia’s game in a post-iPhone world? Probably not, though it looks solid enough and will no doubt have the pundits punting “iPhone Killer” all over again (really, didn’t the Storm teach them anything?) Engadget has the video (above) and the stats, which are admittedly drool worthy:

3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel … resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback … QWERTY keyboard [slider] … HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and “DVD quality” video capture at 30fps, too.

The hardware certainly reads — and looks — impressive but the UI isn’t exactly bowling us over. While Nokia is calling it the “world’s most advanced mobile computer”, we’re not sure its Symbian guts are quite up to Mobile OS X level computing yet (though InfoSyncWorld thinks HTC may have a lot to worry about).

What do you think? iPhone Killer, or just another wannabe? And by June 2009 (likely shipping date for the n97), could Steve Jobs already be on the WWDC stage dropping the iPhone HD bomb?!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Nokia Announces N97 “Yet Another iPhone Killer”?

Joost now available for iPhone/iPod touch

Filed under: Multimedia, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Joost, the on-demand video streaming service that came to the Mac a while ago, has now made its way to the iPhone and iPod touch. The video service features music videos, TV shows, and even movies ... and you can now watch all of them on the go.

You can browse videos by Joost picks, popular videos, browse videos by category, and search for videos. Joost uses a custom built video viewer, as opposed to the regular video player that is used by the YouTube application. I didn't really like this custom view, nor the inability to rotate the video. I also had some troubles trying to watch a video; sometimes I would be presented with a "Playback Error." When I was able to view a video, it stuttered all the way through to the end.

The Joost application is a great start for the video on-demand service, but I would like to see tighter integration with the Joost platform. Right now, this application just seems like an alternative to the YouTube application that's already built into the device. If you are a Joost addict, however, you might want to check this application out. You can download it today on the iTunes App Store.

Joost now available for iPhone/iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Joost now available for iPhone/iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Calendar Announces iCal Support

Google has dropped the iCal bomb. That’s right. Buh-bye third party intermediaries, hello built-in Google Calendar support for Apple’s open source CalDAV standard:

The Google Calendar team is proud to announce the public release of our support for the CalDAV protocol. You can now use Apple iCal with your Google Calendar, so you can work even when you’re offline, sync almost instantly, respond to invitations from others and see the free/busy data of your friends and coworkers.

You can get both the setup program and the download from Google code source. (Now if we could only get some similar Google love for CardDAV as part of a Google Contacts revamp…)

If anyone has a chance to try it out, let us know how it works for getting your gCal into MobileMe or onto your iPhone (I’m — right now very sadly — transitioning to the HTC FUZE for the Round Robin, so let me live vicariously through you!)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Google Calendar Announces iCal Support

Flick Bowling Holiday “Easter Egg”

Filed under: Gaming, Humor, Odds and ends, iPhone, Holidays, App Store, iPod touch

While this might not meet the official definition of an "Easter Egg" in an application, I thought it was pretty cool that when I opened Flick Bowling (click opens iTunes) on December 1st, I noticed something different.

First, the background on the splash screen (below) was red instead of the normal blue. The "Flick" logo is in Christmas red and green, and the bowling pins now have red and green stripes.


When you bring up the Free Play mode and start bowling, you'll notice that the usual bunting at the end of the alleys is now supplemented with Christmas lights and a big wreath (see screenshots below).

Flick Bowling Holiday "Easter Egg" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Flick Bowling Holiday "Easter Egg" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld San Francisco 2009 Registration, New Macs, 32GB iPhones?

Macworld announced on Monday that the "early bird" registration for Macworld San Francisco 2009 will be extended until December 8th. The early registration provides a discount on the price of admission. Basic expo floor passes can be had for $25,...

Nokia N97 vs iPhone… Fight!

Now this is a fight worth waiting for.

[Photo courtesy of Robert Scoble]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 vs iPhone... Fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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